Trump says US should levy fines against tech giants, like EU

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday suggested U.S. regulators should follow the European Union's lead by levying massive fines against American tech companies, saying "obviously there is something going on in terms of monopoly" in the sector.

During a wide-ranging interview on CNBC, Trump was asked whether Google and Facebook pose competitive concerns and whether antitrust laws should be amended to address them.

In a meandering response, he blasted the EU for targeting U.S. tech companies with massive fines as a way of getting "easy money." Google has faced billions in antitrust fines from the bloc, while it and other tech giants may incur further penalties under a sweeping new EU privacy law.

Yet he also suggested the U.S. emulate such past and notional EU actions, maintaining the companies may indeed raise antitrust concerns.

"They get all this money. Well, we should be doing — they're our companies. So they're actually attacking our companies. But we should be doing what they're doing," he said.

Trump also said cryptically, "We're going to maybe look at it differently. We have a great attorney general. We're going to look at it differently."

The remarks come as regulators at the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department weigh antitrust scrutiny of tech giants like Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon.

Trump has previously suggested Facebook, Google and Amazon are in a "very antitrust situation."